324= ARIADNE FLORENTINA. 



Sands, and Dolly Vardens, and the Paddington Station, 

 these, I think, are typical of your chief demands ; the cartoons 

 of Raphael which you don't care to see themselves ; and, by 

 way of a flight into the empyrean, the Madonna di San Sisto. 

 And, literally, there are hundreds of cities and villages in 

 Italy in which roof and wall are blazoned with the noblest 

 divinity and philosophy ever imagined by men ; and of all 

 this treasure, I can, as far as I know, give you not one ex- 

 ample, in line engraving, by an English hand ! 



Well, you are in the main matter right in this. You want 

 essentially Bamsgate Sands and the Paddington Station, be- 

 cause there you can see yourselves. 



Make yourselves, then, worthy to be seen for ever, and let 

 English engraving become noble as the record of English 

 loveliness and honour. 



LECTURE V. 



DESIGN IN THE GERMAN SCHOOLS OP ENGRAVING. 



141. BY reference to the close of the preface to ' Eagle's 

 Nest/ you will see, gentlemen, that I meant these lectures, 

 from the first, rather to lead you to the study of the char- 

 acters of two great men, than to interest you in the processes 

 of a secondary form of art. As I draw my materials into the 

 limited form necessary for the hour, I find my divided pur- 

 pose doubly failing ; and would fain rather use my time to- 

 day in supplying the defects of my last lecture, than in 

 opening the greater subject, which I must treat with still 

 more lamentable inadequacy. Nevertheless, you must not 

 think it is for want of time that I omit reference to other 

 celebrated engravers, and insist on the special power of these 

 two only. Many not inconsiderable reputations are founded 

 merely on the curiosity of collectors of prints, or on partial 

 skill in the management of processes ; others, though resting 

 on more secure bases, are still of no importance to you in the 

 general history of art ; whereas you will find the work of 



